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Turbo and octane requirements for '03 Baja

I have requested information from three different turbo outfits referenced in this forum and have yet to receive any reply. My main question is : Is there a turbo set-up that allows the use of 87 octane unleaded fuel? I am thinking of purchasing either a turbo or supercharger set-up for my '03 Baja and would like to know what I am getting into. So far, I am like Schultz: I know Nothing!

Some turbo-charging systems will allow you to run on 87 octane...but some will require premium fuel. My old Volvo and my friend's current Saab recommended 91 octane or better, but the computer can automatically adjust for a lower octane at the expense of performance...horsepower & torque. The owner's manual stated that 91 octane was recommended, but 87 can be used. Both mine and my friend's Saab were the "lower-pressure" turbos...not the fully blown "high-pressure" versions. I think the car's computer would adjust the timing via information from the knock sensor to compensate for lower octane...but I am not sure.

Applegump, I will bet you are right that a turbo system from Subaru would be all around cheaper than aftermarket and it would all be worked out. However, how much would the car cost over a na version and could I roll this one and not get burned at finance.

Thanks again for the good input, guys. Maybe you can tell me what is next in line for increasing torque out of this existing engine.

I have had all sorts of factory turbo cars.. Saabs, Volvos, Subarus, mitsubishis.. And even a couple of aftermarket turbos.. You really should run any turbo I have ever seen with the max octane you can get at the pump.. I have, both by experiment and by accident run 87 an 89 octane in my saabs and my subarus(the 2 turbo cars I have the most experience with) and I have had terrible results in relation to how well the car runs, Idles and performs.. If you have the money to spend on a turbo kit for a car, don't cheap out and put crappy gas in it.. I found some dyno results a few years ago, showed that an N/A honda got more power on 89 than 92 octane.. but the turbo Saab(95) got substantially more power with 92 octane.

Like I said above, I have never seen a turbo car that likes anything under 91 octane.. And since we have 93 down here, my soob is even happier.

I think that with a turbo system, you will definitely want a higher octane. Higher octane fuel takes more energy to ignite than regular fuel, so it is used in HIGHER COMPRESSION engines. An engine set up for turbo has around an 8.0:1 compression ratio, WITHOUT the turbo charge. I'm not sure what the compression is with the turbo, but I am ASSUMING (keyword, so don't flame me experts!) that it is around 10.0-11.00:1 compression. When you compress the fuel/air mixture in the cylinder, the air heats up, and that heat ITSELF can ignite the fuel! However, the higher the octane, the smaller the chance that the fuel will prematurely ignite before the piston reaches full compression. A car's computer can compensate for this pre-ignition on lower octane fuels, but as Strakes and calebz said, your car will run horribly. Hope this helps out!

It realy depends on the design. When i had my 87 turbo supra it ran perfectly well on 87 octane in the summer. When i ran 89, or 91 which i normaly did I never noticed the diffrence, and i am pretty sensitive to diffrences in a car, but the supra was only runing 7 psi, but my frineds supra is running 12 psi (5 more than stock), and runs 89 octane, in a 89 supra, same engine as mine was, and has no problems.